After a careful journey south, Mara reaches Baldur’s Gate with her hand supported beneath folded cloth. The sealed folio remains safely in Phandelver, under the healer’s care and boundary stones.
Fog drifts through the Lower City, carrying river damp, salt, and the layered cries of porters. Kynes walks beside Mara, keeping pace without touching her or directing her path.
Kynes
The lower archives keep older testimony customs than Phandelver. Some records distinguish a spoken name from the person who bears it, which is precisely the distinction we need.
He leads her toward a narrow record house wedged between counting rooms, its lintel carved with open hands and crossed quills. A brass plaque names the keeper as Orra Venn.
Kynes
Orra Venn once catalogued coastal witness laws. She may recognize Sael’s name, but recognition will not become evidence unless its bearer freely offers more.
Inside, shelves vanish into the fog-dim rafters. A gray-robed clerk looks up from a ledger, then notices Mara’s supported hand and Kynes’s careful distance.
Orra Venn
Names have crossed this harbor as promises, titles, and refusals. Tell me what may be asked, and I will tell you what may remain unanswered.
✓ Quest Accepted
Establish a lawful path to identify relevant testimony without breaching the sealed testimony’s privacy
“I will explain the sealed name and ask which testimony customs apply.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Persuasion, rolled -2)
Mara
The sealed parchment bears Sael’s name, but its bearer and author remain unknown. I ask which testimony customs can distinguish the promise from the person without opening it.
Mara keeps her supported hand beneath the folded cloth as she speaks. Fog beads on the record house’s open-hand lintel, and Kynes remains beside her without crossing into Orra’s workspace.
Orra Venn
Three customs apply. First, a name may be witnessed without identifying its bearer. Second, a bearer may offer testimony under stated limits. Third, silence or refusal must remain recorded as neither proof nor contradiction.
Orra Venn
The parchment may stay sealed throughout. We compare only the bearer’s freely offered words with Sael’s preserved promise, and we mark agreement, divergence, or refusal without assigning ownership.
Kynes
That is the distinction we need. The promise can be recognized as a record, while the living bearer retains the right to reject comparison entirely.
Orra copies the customs into a fresh ledger entry, but the effort draws a sharp ache through Mara’s scarred palm. Her fingers remain warm, though the pain settles deeper beneath the old binding marks.
Orra Venn
The customs are now entered, including your limits and the parchment’s sealed state. Nothing further may be asked here unless its bearer chooses to offer testimony.
Quest Complete
Establish a lawful path to identify relevant testimony without breaching the sealed testimony’s privacy
“I ask Orra to identify lawful sources of testimony”
SUCCESS (Good Reasoning, rolled +1)
Mara
Orra, identify lawful sources of testimony for this comparison. I want shared witness without opening the parchment or exceeding anyone’s limits.
Mara keeps her supported hand beneath the cloth. Orra turns to a shelf of bound harbor codes, selecting a thin volume marked with an open palm.
Orra Venn
Lawful sources begin with the bearer’s own spoken testimony, offered before named witnesses. Next comes a sworn statement freely written or dictated by that bearer.
Orra Venn
A prior record may also speak, if its custody is documented and its limits are known. A witness to the offering may confirm that it was voluntary, but cannot supply missing meaning.
She copies the categories into her ledger: bearer, sworn statement, lawfully held prior record, and witness to the act of offering. The ink leaves the folio untouched.
Orra Venn
For your case, the lawful sources are the unknown bearer’s testimony, Sael’s preserved promise as a separate record, and witnesses who attest only to what was freely offered.
Orra Venn
You may record agreement, divergence, or refusal. You may not treat rumor, recognition, sealed contents, or silence as testimony. Kynes and I can witness the boundary without claiming the truth within it.
“I ask Kynes to witness Orra’s certification”
SUCCESS (Legendary Persuasion, rolled -2)
Mara
Kynes, witness Orra’s certification. Record that these are lawful sources, that the folio remains sealed, and that every limit is preserved.
Kynes
I witness Orra Venn’s certification. The bearer’s words, a freely given sworn statement, and a lawfully held prior record are the permitted sources. Witnesses confirm only the offering.
Kynes signs the ledger beneath Orra’s entry without touching the folio. His mark names him witness to the certification, not owner of its meaning or authority over the sealed parchment.
Orra Venn
I certify these customs and their limits. Agreement, divergence, and refusal may be recorded; rumor, recognition, silence, and sealed contents may not become testimony.
As Orra presses her seal into the ledger, a sharp ache travels beneath Mara’s scar and stiffens two fingers. The cost is contained, but the hand loses warmth beneath its cloth.
Kynes
The certification stands, Mara. I have witnessed the lawful sources and the boundary around them. Nothing in my mark reaches through the folio.
Orra Venn
The entry is complete and witnessed. When the bearer speaks, these rules will govern the comparison, and refusal will remain an honest ending.
✓ Quest Accepted
Leave the record house
“I thank Orra and leave the record house with Kynes.”
Mara
Thank you, Orra. Your certification preserves the boundary we need.
Mara leaves the record house with Kynes, keeping her supported hand beneath the folded cloth. Fog closes softly behind them as Orra’s sealed ledger remains within.
Kynes
The customs are clear now. When the bearer speaks, no one can mistake recognition for proof, or silence for an answer.
Kynes walks beside Mara through the damp Lower City street, matching her pace. Harbor bells sound beyond the rooftops, and clerks carry sealed bundles toward the counting houses.
Kynes
There is one lawful source still beyond our reach: a prior record, if the bearer has placed one in custody. We can ask without demanding.
Mara
The hand remains warm beneath the cloth, though two fingers are stiff.
Kynes
A custodian near the river keeps witness deposits under open-hand law. We can inquire there, and leave immediately if the question is refused.
Quest Complete
Leave the record house
“"you can use psycomatry on it as well. You know, kind of like shaking a Yule present" I remark”
SUCCESS (Great Arcana, rolled +0)
Mara
You can use psychometry on it as well. You know, kind of like shaking a Yule present.
Kynes leads Mara beneath an arch of carved open hands, where a river custodian presents a small witness deposit sealed in wax and silver thread.
Kynes
The deposit was lawfully placed here, but its contents remain sealed. You may read what the object remembers without opening it.
Mara rests her supported hand near the deposit, not touching its seal. Her senses pass through the outer history like fingers testing a wrapped gift, and the magic answers quietly.
She receives the memory of a hooded bearer placing the deposit before two witnesses, naming it a voluntary testimony for comparison with Sael’s promise. The bearer forbade opening, alteration, or identification by recognition alone.
Kynes
It remembers the offering and its limits, not the bearer’s identity. That makes it a lawful prior record, exactly as Orra certified.
The silver thread dims after yielding the memory. The deposit remains sealed and intact, while Kynes turns toward the custodian, ready to record the testimony without claiming more than it offers.
“" let me guess , you tried already?."I state plainly”
SUCCESS (Legendary Persuasion, rolled +2)
Mara
Let me guess, you tried already?
The river custodian lowers their gaze to the sealed deposit. Wax and silver thread remain unbroken, and the witness marks show no sign of tampering.
the river custodian
I did. I used the custodian’s permitted touch, not an opening. The deposit showed me the offering, its limits, and nothing beyond them.
the river custodian
It refused identity, as the bearer required. I could confirm that the testimony was placed lawfully, but I could not make it reveal whom recognition might suggest.
Kynes glances from the custodian to Mara’s supported hand, then to the intact seal. The river’s damp breath moves through the open-hand arch.
Kynes
That matches Mara’s reading. Your attempt established the deposit’s limits without becoming an attempt to defeat them.
the river custodian
Exactly. If you both wish to witness the memory, I can state what I learned and mark my attempt separately from the bearer’s testimony.
“I witness the custodian’s statement and limits”
Mara inclines her head and keeps her supported hand beneath the cloth. She witnesses the custodian’s statement without touching the wax, thread, or sealed deposit.
the river custodian
I state that the deposit was lawfully placed before two witnesses as voluntary testimony for comparison with Sael’s preserved promise.
the river custodian
I also state its limits: the seal must not be opened or altered, and the bearer must not be identified through recognition alone. My permitted touch revealed no identity.
The custodian marks the ledger with a river-blue seal, recording the offering, the limits, and the custodian’s own failed attempt at identification as separate facts.
Kynes
I witness the statement and its limits. The deposit confirms a lawful offering, but its refusal to reveal identity remains part of the testimony.
The silver thread gives one quiet pulse, accepting the distinction without loosening. The deposit’s memory remains available for comparison, while its withheld identity stays beyond every witness.
the river custodian
There is one further entry. The bearer named a place where the comparison might be received, though not a name by which the bearer could be found.
✓ Quest Accepted
Learn where the comparison may be lawfully received
“Ask the custodian to state the place where the comparison may be received.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Persuasion, rolled -1)
Mara
State the place where the comparison may be received. Keep the bearer unnamed, and preserve every limit attached to the offering.
Mara keeps her hand beneath the cloth and does not approach the deposit. The custodian opens the ledger to a fresh line, leaving the wax and silver thread undisturbed.
the river custodian
The bearer named the House of Quiet Tides, on the river’s eastern quay, as the receiving place. No personal name or description accompanied the direction.
the river custodian
The comparison may be received there by a custodian under open-hand law, if the bearer presents the testimony willingly. The place is an invitation, not a summons.
The custodian records House of Quiet Tides beneath the deposit’s limits, marking the place as offered guidance rather than evidence of identity. The sealed testimony remains untouched.
Kynes
Then we know where testimony may arrive, not who will bring it. I will witness the place, but I will not search for a bearer who has withheld a name.
the river custodian
That is the lawful distinction. The House may receive what is freely offered, and it must record refusal, silence, or absence without turning any of them into proof.
Quest Complete
Learn where the comparison may be lawfully received